Chronic hip/butt pain Hip Labral Arthroscopy

Hi, I am a 20 year old man facing a hip arthroscopy in a week. I am highly skeptical due to my atypical symptoms and am very nervous. If anyone has had similar symptoms and had positive results please let me know. Also if anyone has had arthroscopy and can give me some insight that would be greatly appreciated. Any peace of mind would be awesome.

The problem began when my right hip felt like it was giving out while I was running on the beach. I rested for 2 weeks, but upon continuing the symptoms worsened to include pain in my glute region and outer hip (near the bursae directly adjacent to the femur head). I have been diagnosed with bursitis-MD (told to rest plus anti-inflammatory), piriformis syndrome - ortho (6 weeks PT, no help), pelvic misalignment - chiro (adjustment, no lasting help), and finally the labral tear. I had MRI's of my hip, pelvis, and lumbar spine and the only condition was the tear and some inflammation. The pain is in my upper buttock and outer hip primarily, but has referred even to my lower back. Since the diagnosis I have underwent 6 more weeks of PT with a slight improvement. In addition I seem to have very tight muscles in my right back and hip flexors. The ortho says he will look at the rectus femoris and psoas while he is in there, but doubts he will change them. My skepticism stems from my research as well as my doctors not knowing exactly what the problem is. They have essentially told me that this is the last possible cause. I am 90% sure I am going to do the surgery because I haven't been able to run or play sports in a year already and another 4 months doesn't seem too bad. I just don't want to go through all of this and have no results.

I hope you can get some responses here. I have similar symptoms, and am in PT now. I am hoping to run my first Boston next spring (8 months away) and have pretty much ceased running any significant mileage in hopes that my problem will heal. Very depressed about my lack of running and the prospect of missing out.

Seems to me that all the medical professionals you've been seeing are playing pin the tail on the donkey. While arthroscopic surgery isn't a major deal nowadays, I'd be reluctant to undergo any surgery without a reasonably solid diagnosis and prognosis.

I had a hip arthroscopy in Dec 2011. After 4 months of failed PT, Motrin, Naproxin and a Cortisone injection into my hip that kept me pain free for a week it was my only option.

I did have some Bursa pain and SI Joint issues but they resolved with PT. My tear symptoms were extreme groin pain, deep in the hip. Hurt to walk. Hurt to sit. Riding in the car more the 15 min was horrible. My hip would catch and get stuck sometimes.

My tears Did not show up on my MRI Arthrogram. My surgeon was pretty certain that I had a tear that was not showing up. My options were continue to suffer or have the surgery and maybe be better. He found several micro tears and synovitis. Also have Osteoarthritis but he could not do anything about that.

I am so much better than before surgery. Still issues with my hip but it's manageable. Recovery wasn't easy but I ended up with hip flexor tendinitis which made my recovery take longer and just plain sucked.

Thanks turtle runner for the reply. After further research I found that the bursae and butt pain can be caused by labral tears though at a rate of 15-20% of cases. Most of these being posterior labral tear ( as I have). As of right now I am 4 hours post op. It is still too early to determine success as I am still in pain. However, I would like to keep this forum post open to note my progress on rehab for others.

To start, my ortho found a moderate posterior labral tear without a significant amount of FAI (not the cause of the tear). He repaired the tear by shaving it and using a single anchor into the acetabulum. There was also a significant amount of inflammation in the joint and surrounding area (which is assumed to have caused the pain). He also believes that the slight back pain is from the change in my gait and if not it should be more easily fixed by PT. Post op pain includes a dull ache all around the joint area. Over the next two months I will post progress reports for everyone with similar conditions. If anyone stumbles across this and has questions about my surgery or the research I have done please feel free to ask, I would be glad to help!

Looking forward to following your progress. My symptoms actually started out as IT Band pain at the knee which lasted for about a year until I had it surgically released in September. Along the way I found out I had a tear and FAI but it was not bothersome at the time and I was back to running 6:15 miles by December with no pain in my hip joint or the exterior.

I ran a race on New Year's Eve when about four miles into it I got a sudden, sharp pain over the outside of my hip. I've been unable to run ever since without pain, even after two cortisone shots into the bursae. Biking is still somewhat OK but my walking gait is definitely off as well and has caused lower back pain. I just had a cortisone shot into the hip joint last week which helped for a few days and I'm scheduled for surgery at the end of August.

just throwing up another follow up post about surgery. its now been about 10 days since my operation and I have no pain from my hip joint. in fact i did not need pain medication at all post op. I am still not weight bearing so i am not able to determine the success of surgery. I had a check up yesterday with the ortho who was impressed with my range of motion (almost full already). he also removed my stitches. I am now able to take the hip brace off when I sleep. In all honesty i have had more back pain/stiffness from this brace than i have hip pain. The ortho believes I will be able to remove the brace at the end of this week and be off of crutches within 2 (3 weeks total). At physical therapy I have been riding a stationary bike (1-3 resistance level) without any issues. all of the muscles seem to be firing properly as well. i will get a slight painful response with too much external rotation of my leg but have been told that this is normal and is prevented by the brace. lastly I have not had any problems with the medication. i was given naproxin (anti-inflam), precocet(pain), prilosec (stomach pain/ bleeding), indocin(restricts bone regrowth), zofran (nausea), and colace-T(constapation). i have completed the indocin (5-days) and now only take the naproxin and prilosec. the percocet, zofran, and colace are optional (have not touched them). I will have another followup post once I get rid of this brace. good luck to anyone with hip issues and once again if you have questions feel free to ask.

Insomnia has the best of me at the moment so I thought I would post another progress report. I saw the ortho yesterday for a check-up before going back to school. So far I have had a remarkably fast recovery according to him. My range of motion is 95% in all directions except for bent knee external rotation (where I am 27/35 degrees). At 13 days post op my incisions were 100% healed and I can now begin an aqua therapy regimen. The ortho believes my progress to this point (18 days post op) is what he would typically expect at 4-5 weeks. I have been cleared to walk without crutches at 3 weeks post op as long as pain does not increase. Currently I have no pain in my groin (I didn't have any pre-op though) and the pain in the outer hip/ buttock is minimal. This pain occurred with increase activity and I won't know until I begin walking freely. I have developed some SI joint pain and have incredibly tight hip flexors from sitting and lying around. This pain was occasionally present pre op but is believed to be due to a change in gait due to lack of joint stability. I also have a 1.5 cm difference in leg length (taken from a full leg x-ray with a ruler) that may have contributed to this issue as well. Hopefully with stabilization exercises and a heel lift I will be able to attain balance once again and remove this pain for good. So far these exercises are minor since I am at 18 days, but I have been foam rolling my legs and butt as well as using a tennis ball to release my core back muscles. I will try to post progress in another week or so. Once again if anyone stumbles upon this thread and has any questions feel free to ask! And good luck healing whatever injury brought you here.

I have the EXACT symptoms you have Chiarico, but I am reluctant to opt for surgery on my torn labrum. The reason I am reluctant is that with a torn labrum you typically have pain in the groin and I don't. Also, people can go years with a labrum tear and not have symptons and do not need surgery. Most of my pain is coming deep within my glute, a nervey scatic feeling, and in my lower back right near my spine on the same side, and also deep under my glute as in where you imagine your hamstring would attach. Basically there are about 4-5 points of pain (back, two areas in glute, sciatic feeling, and then the hamstring). I am trying to figure out if my pain is actually coming from the torn labrum or could it be back related? Also my legs are same in length but for whatever reason it was positioned almost an inch shorter because of the way it was sitting in the hip socket or hip rotation..(?). My PT guy adjusted it back into place but i believe it creeps back out of place all the time. I did get an MRI of the back and the hip. A teeny tiny bit of arthritis on the L4/L5 joint (which is normal for my age) and obviously the torn labrum. I am looking for an update on your progress and possibly advice on the glute/back pain and whether or not the surgery helped these issues. Thank you. Kicker Z

I have the EXACT symptoms you have Chiarico, but I am reluctant to opt for surgery on my torn labrum. The reason I am reluctant is that with a torn labrum you typically have pain in the groin and I don't. Also, people can go years with a labrum tear and not have symptons and do not need surgery. Most of my pain is coming deep within my glute, a nervey scatic feeling, and in my lower back right near my spine on the same side, and also deep under my glute as in where you imagine your hamstring would attach. Basically there are about 4-5 points of pain (back, two areas in glute, sciatic feeling, and then the hamstring). I am trying to figure out if my pain is actually coming from the torn labrum or could it be back related? Also my legs are same in length but for whatever reason it was positioned almost an inch shorter because of the way it was sitting in the hip socket or hip rotation..(?). My PT guy adjusted it back into place but i believe it creeps back out of place all the time. I did get an MRI of the back and the hip. A teeny tiny bit of arthritis on the L4/L5 joint (which is normal for my age) and obviously the torn labrum. I am looking for an update on your progress and possibly advice on the glute/back pain and whether or not the surgery helped these issues. Thank you. Kicker Z

Hi Kicker,

I wanted to post because I had some of the exact same symptoms that you and the OP had with the butt pain. I never got groin pain which is why the surgeons were so stumped at my symptoms. I have now had 3 hip scopes on my right hip but still continue to have butt pain and just recently I find out that I have whats called femoral anteversion and tibial torsion and the combination of this is called miserable malalignment syndrome. Basically my femurs twist inward and my tibia's twist outward. I was told by one of the best malalignment surgeons that butt pain is a symptom of femoral anteversion, which would explain why my pain never went away even after all my scopes and multiple repairs of my labrum including a labral graft.

I would suggest that you get a rotational MRI or a CT scan (a CT will be more accurate) to make sure that you do not have a bony abnormality like anteversion or dysplasia. I would suggest this for anyone looking at hip scope surgery because if surgery is not done by a very skilled surgeon, these things are often not caught because they are not measured.

I had a hip arthroscopy in Dec 2011. After 4 months of failed PT, Motrin, Naproxin and a Cortisone injection into my hip that kept me pain free for a week it was my only option.

I did have some Bursa pain and SI Joint issues but they resolved with PT. My tear symptoms were extreme groin pain, deep in the hip. Hurt to walk. Hurt to sit. Riding in the car more the 15 min was horrible. My hip would catch and get stuck sometimes.

My tears Did not show up on my MRI Arthrogram. My surgeon was pretty certain that I had a tear that was not showing up. My options were continue to suffer or have the surgery and maybe be better. He found several micro tears and synovitis. Also have Osteoarthritis but he could not do anything about that.

I am so much better than before surgery. Still issues with my hip but it's manageable. Recovery wasn't easy but I ended up with hip flexor tendinitis which made my recovery take longer and just plain sucked.

Hi I see that you said you developed flexor tendonitis. I am 3 monthes post hip arthroscopy and initially things were progressing well when about a month ago I started to develop pain in my hip and groin which is worse than prior to the surgery. I'm wondering if I am overdoing. My ortho put me on NSAIDs and I also just received a hip injection yesturday I thought I would be so much better now. I do work and am on my feet all day and just everyday activities are painful. Do you have any encouraging suggestions?? Thank you!

How are you since your hip surgery? Im 31 years old women. Im having pain since september last year.

I was very active with step classes, eliptical, workouts,walking,running, but since then I have hip and lower back pain. The MRI showed FAI, Cam, labral tear and L5 S1 herniation disc. Every day is different, but the pain in the inner thight, buttock and side hip is always here, some days the pain is worst. But the lower back is different. Im weeks withoust lower back pain and then comeback again. (i copy this from your post because is exactly the same same) the symptoms worsened to include pain in my glute region and outer hip (near the bursae directly adjacent to the femur head). The pain is in my upper buttock and outer hip primarily, but has referred even to my lower back.I seem to have very tight muscles in my right back and hip flexors.

I saw a specialist in denver and he told me to do surgery. But Im readinf and reading and maybe the pain is for Sacroiliac dysfunction.I dont know what to do?????

I am a 20 year old male and just had Hip Arthroscopy yesterday to repair a torn labrum and bone spur on the Femoral Head of my left hip. I have had this problem since April 2014, and after rest and physical therapy from the athletic trainer at the NAIA school I run for, there was no real progress being made. I had the majority of my pain deep in my glute and was sore on top of my hip bone and in my lower back. An MRI with Contrast did not show any abnormalities initially, but after pain did not subside by mid-Summer, I finally visited a hip specialist who felt otherwise. He recommended surgery because he felt that even though the MRI didn't clearly show a tear, he was convinced it was torn regardless. In addition, he saw a bone spur that was formed when I was growing and could have contributed to the torn labrum.

Over the summer, I also received XRays of my back, and then an MRI of my back which showed I had Spondylolysis on the L5 Lumbar vertebrae as well as S1 nerve impingement. I was placed in a back brace and underwent Physical Therapy to try to heal the Spondy as much as possible.

I had hip pain in my left hip when I was running XC in the 6th grade, but MRIs on that came back negative and I had no trouble coming back after rest. I am not sure what the cause of that hip pain was to this day.

Fast forward 8 years and after doing a routine Fartlek with teammates in March, I felt excruciating hip pain in my left hip. I initially thought that I just knocked my hips out of alignment, which I have done in the past, and although they were, once they got put back in alignment the pain did not subside.

So today, I sit in my living room at home with ice packs on my hip and am just so relieved that I got the surgery and that the Surgeon's initial assumptions were true. Although it is not the case for everybody, I did not have any groin pain throughout this process which may have delayed the diagnosis of a torn labrum. I begin Physical Therapy today and estimated full recovery is 16 weeks.

I believe that this injury is more common than many think, having a teammate who is a Sprinter have the same surgery a couple weeks ago. I encourage anybody having doubts to see a hip specialist if pain does not subside after a given period of time. It is a long road ahead for recovery, but as a distance runner, I am looking forward to the challenge of overcoming this and hitting the roads again and getting back to my love of running.

Anyone with a labral tear please read! A labral tear is a symptom. I am a PT & nearly 1/2 of my patients have failed labral repairs. I highly suggest looking for a healthcare provider that does Neurokinetic Therapy (NKT). It's the only thing I've found that addresses the source & not just the symptoms. It looks for specific muscle imbalances, rather than just arbitrarly stretching & exercising. In most cases patients with labral tears have a shut down quad or psoas (majir core muscle connecting trunk & lower body). I've seen amazing results. Much better than 1, 2 or 3 surgeries and 9 months of therapy!

I'm a masters sprinter and I had a sudden episode in a 100m race where I felt a sudden grind or pop in the front of the hip at full extension (leg back) at full sprint. Normally one would think this is a hip flexor tear or strain - the pain is in the hip flexor area primarily, but extends down the femur. I can do things that involve flexing the hip - like running stairs without pain - but simply walking as the leg goes back hurts. What is this?